Flood Water In Car

[Southern Car Parts]

Well Im down in Houston and we got alot of rain. I have alot of friends that cars got flooded but not to the point of totaling them. Carpets need cleaning. Is there any Adams product we can use to clean and deodorize them?

Let me know

 

 

 

Paul Morris

Marketing/Sales

1-888-631-1433 ext. 101

www.southerncarparts.com

[Chonke]

The only ones I can think of would be carpet and upholstery cleaner. Maybe odor neutralizer and all purpose cleaner. But idk if steam cleaning would be more effective in this case.

[pmichael2011]

IMHO, if it were my car and insurance didn't total it. I would pull the seats, carpet and padding out. If it is within financial means, I would replace both the carpet and padding or at the very least replace the padding.

[Feets31]

And you have to watch for interior wires and switches rusting now that they are wet.  But dumping the carpet and seats and anything cloth and maybe anything with soft rubber should be under consideration.  If you are not sure.  Clean the carpet, in a few days see if it is smelling again.  If yes, replace it.  Do the same with the seats and dash.  A lot depends on how deep the water was. Some of those clean up and others you can never get the smell out no matter what you replace. 

[Rich]

Like others have said, it depends on how much water got in and how much damage was done.  Leather or fabric seats?  Heated or cooled seats?  Both of those options have different solutions.  Leather seats may shrink and dry out eventually, but the big issue here is the padding underneath the leather. Not good if it got soaked. Personally, I'd replace them if the foam got wet. Fabric seats can be wet vac'd and air dried a lot easier, but there may be a mold or mildew smell left over. Adam's Odor Neutralizer would work to eliminate the odor, but nothing is going to get rid of the mold or mildew except replacement. 

Pretty much the same with carpet and padding.  Wet vac, dry with heat if possible, and watch for carpet pulling away in the corners and seams.  Many car owners may just have to suck it up and replace it all.  

 

And if the wires and connections for those heated, cooled, or automatic seats got wet, that's a whole other ballgame. 

[mc2hill]

A non-Adam's product, but if you are leaving the carpets, sprinkle some borax to help keep mildew at bay.

[ocdrifter]

As stated above pull the seats out and carpet and padding out, I would use a power washer to clean them and rinse them out and the let air dry in the sun and reinstall and your good to go.

[GXPaycheck]

Mold and mildew love steam. Plenty of extra moisture.

[pirahnah3]

The one thing that comes to my mind in this case would be to hit the cars with a solid dose of Ozone, it should handle all of that mold and mildew but might take some work and effort. 

 

Personally I would gut the interior and clean all the metal, let the seats sit in the sun and dry out as much as possible if fabric, if leather, its going to be a mess. Carpet and padding say goodbye just get new, dont forget the headliner and other areas of the car were able to absorb a TON of moisture just from the air. 

 

If you are going to be doing anything a mask is in order , you do NOT want to breathe in all those spores. Do as much work outside of your shop as possible if you are doing it. 

[pmichael2011]

I'll add, that once you pull everything that you can. IT wouldn't be a bad idea to run a dehumidifier in the car for a couple days.

[GXPaycheck]

Add some dessicants like Damp Rid. Anything to soak up the moisture.